Apple Store Followup . . .

We stuck it out the whole night. I feel proud of myself. It was still dang cold, but it was worth it. The sun rose to a lengthy line, which at its peak, I'd wager, contained 700-800 people. Perhaps more. No doubt the store was able to deplete 1000 unit supply of custom Apple "The Gateway" t-shirts. The Gateway Store team emerged from the secretive depths of the store every so often to stir up the crowd. The sidelines were dotted with reporters and journalists and the atmosphere was tense, excited and anxious. The journalists seemed uncharacteristically more interested in the 4 sleep-over fans older than 35, than the other two under the age of 21. But, no matter. I just found it strange. Rumors of an appearance by The Man Steve Jobs himself floated among the crowd, but no such visit by ANY prominent Apple executives graced our lovely out-door mall. Apparently Utah is still not important enough to recieve any kind of commercial attention. Finally at 9:59:50 am a cheerful Apple manager sprang from the front door and initiated the 10 second countdown. It was thrilling. To have been the 5th entrant is truly an honor. The employees were lined up from the front of the store to the rear and cheered loudly and gave high-fives to all of us drooling Apple fanatics. They allowed only 50-70 customers in the store at a time, so I greedily enjoyed an hour of bright-eyed wonder as I raced from kiosk to row to desk examining all I could, kindly excusing myself as I mowed over dozens of other desperate shoppers. I knew I had to buy something. Despite my determination to be frugal and rational, such an opportunity simply cannot be surpassed. For ages I've complained of an aching neck after hunching hour after hour over my 15" Powerbook typing papers, designing websites, or conjuring up the occasional blog entry. So I bought a Griffin iCurve (laptop stand), and an Apple Keyboard from which I'm typing to you now. It never ceases to amaze me how something as simple and ordinary as a keyboard can be renovated into something so luscious and aesthetically delightful. I grabbed my free t-shirt, containted neatly within yet another beautifully designed package, on the way out the door, and bid farewell to my new second-favorite destination in Salt Lake City.
Again, let me direct you to my new friend Kelly's blog who put together a nice summary and a descriptive photo album. Though I don't appear in any of the photos, you can see my blue denim blanket with red ties off to the left side of the frame in many shots. So, in conclusion, it was worth the freezing wait 110%; the reward was unimaginable.